Man in a Cage

The women gathered in Hurtle Square,

Or what had remained of it,

They’d coloured their lips and they’d curled their hair

They’d powdered themselves, most everywhere,

Stepped over the rubble that lay out there,

In clothes of the tightest fit.

 

The cars sat silent along the street,

The paint beginning to peel,

It had been so long since the world went wrong

Since the pumps had closed and the oil had gone,

The radio played a plaintive song

Of a love that ceased to be real.

 

The plague had ravaged the planet’s face,

Had taken a billion men,

And what was left was the barest trace

Of the masculine side of the human race,

Pollution took care of their D.N.A.’s

By gifting them Oestrogen!

 

There wasn’t a fertile man in town,

‘Til one had returned from space,

He’d come at the end of the autumn rains

To the empty wombs and the women’s pains,

So they seized him there and they bound in chains

The last hope of the race.

 

He sat in a cage in the Travellers Inn,

Enthroned like the chosen one,

While a hundred women paraded by

With a shimmy, a blink and a wink of the eye

From the love-lost there, an audible sigh

At the thought of bearing a son!

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[cynthiabuhainbaello]

A morbid futuristic scene so vividly narrated and woven into a poetic story.
The introduction was intriguing, catching interest and curiosity with its mystery. Your story poems never fail to deliver the impact and a remarkable twist in the end. Excellent, David.

[V.J.C.]

Poems to me are just shorter stories. That must work harder to express much meaning in few words.
You told this story very well, grabbing me and then pulling me in. For the story and the thrilling emotions are what I seek.
The words you crafted here indeed show the power you have over words. Thank you for this wonderful read.

[ewest1220]

Very well done! I really enjoyed this piece!

[Veronica Chandler]

The rythym and flow of this piece captivates me, and the subject I find quite disturbing. A world with only one man? I can only imagine the ensuing mayhem with only one man for a world of women.

[MOON]

Good write last man standing spawning a race , typical!

[BlackRose]

Different in a good way unlike the rest. Rhyming, seeing it's what you chose and you do best. Word for word, laid out so artistically, coming alive. Going along with you on this adventurous drive. Each one not the same as the last. Luring me in, reading of the future, that time, the past. Whatever you exhibit from up your sleeve. it's an honor for what you do achieve.

[Marie]

A strange story, and a good one. Much more hopeful than if only one fertile woman had been left. For it takes her 9 months to become a mother, while a man can father a hundred children in l.

[A Jainam Mehta]

One more work of wonder.
:)

[Helen Crutchett]

Wow David, you have penned a masterpiece here. What an imaginative tale you have spun. Loved it!